grace upon grace

 

Gospels unfold. Here is how John begins his:

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it...

‘And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth...From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.’

John 1.1-5, 14, 16-18.

Not many verses later, we find ourselves at a wedding at Cana (John 2.1-11). And the wine has run out. At this celebration of hope and a future, not only for two families but for the welfare of the wider community, at this moment of light in what can feel a dark world, darkness encroaches. Loss encroaches. Death encroaches.

Indeed, death always encroaches on a wedding. In our own marriage vows, a couple commit to one another for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. But no one wants to be reminded again at the reception.

The wine has run out. And Jesus instructs the servants to fill six stone jars to the brim with water. John has already declared that All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. That is, Jesus does not only turn water into wine; the water itself flows from him.

John has already declared, From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The water is grace, and the wine is grace upon grace. The water is grace, that flows through Moses giving the Law. Some Jews ritually wash their hands as the first act after waking, after passing from the symbolic death of sleep to the new life of a new day. As a reminder that life is a gift, in the face of the temptation to view another day as a curse. Another Monday at school, at work. No, life is grace, and grace will bless our hands as we participate in the work of God to make all things new. Some Jews also ritually wash their hands before eating bread, pausing to notice the connection between our bodies and the soil of the earth to which we will return, our bodies and the sweat of the brow by which food is brought forth. To notice the connectedness and holiness of all things. And those Jews who were priests had water poured on the hands before pronouncing a blessing, before stretching out their hand to mend the world.

The water is from Jesus (through Moses) and is grace. The wine is from Jesus (through the unnamed servants) and is grace upon grace. The wine will be consumed, just as the earlier wine had been consumed, and the stone jars will go back to holding water for purification. But that grace is now re-enchanted.

And by this sign, Jesus revealed his glory, revealed the nature of the God whom we cannot see. A God who gives grace upon grace. A God from whom we have all received grace, and who does not stop there but gives the grace of his own transforming presence in our midst, in our lives.

This is not magic. Jesus is not a talisman to ward off evil. We do not say, trust in Jesus and you will not know loss, will not know disenchantment with the world, with life. Rather, we say, invite Jesus to your life, in its moments of celebration and in its inevitable moments of depletion, and you will not face these moments alone. Indeed, in him is hope, that God will restore all that is lost. In him is light that will not be extinguished. In him is life, in its fullness.

For from his fullness, we all receive grace upon grace.